City bizmen jubilant over Mattewara project

Ludhiana: City businessmen are jubilant over Wednesday’s cabinet approval of setting up of a 1,000 acre modern industrial park in Ludhiana’s Mattewara. According to businessmen, the project would give a major push to the industry of Ludhiana and it will give a good alternative to the factories which are unable to expand due to unavailability of land in designated industrial areas.
Jaswinder Thukral, president of Janta Nagar Small Scale Manufacturers Association, said, “This is great news for Ludhiana’s industry as now we will have another industrial area, that too spread on 1000 acre. We are thankful to the state government for formally approving this project. Already there is a huge shortage of plots in the designated industrial areas of Ludhiana and the rates of those available for sale are so exorbitant that these are out of reach of the micro and small scale industry. With this project, factories in areas like Meharban, Rahon Road, etc., who are facing the problem of ailing infrastructure like roads, sewrage and streetlights, would also get a chance to shift to a proper industrial area, which would be having state of the art infrastructure. We request the chief minister and industry minister to ensure that the land for this project is acquired at the earliest and the project too should be completed in a time-bound manner.”
According to Sahil Sharma, a garment manufacturer having factory at Rahon Road, “This is a great news for the Ludhiana industries but particularly for the garment industry which is majorly spread in areas near Mattewara. Once complete, the project will also give livelihood and earning opportunity to the people of the nearby villages.”
Meanwhile, giving more information about the project a spokesperson of Punjab government said, “To be set up at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore, the project will cater to the needs of prospective entrepreneurs, industrialists for setting up their ventures expeditiously, in line with the urgent need to develop such industrial/economic hubs in the state. The ambitious Mattewara project had been under active consideration of the state government for the past several years, and it was originally conceived and constantly pursued by the industries department. However, considering the capacity of the housing and urban development to raise finance and execute the project of such a scale, the same was transferred to it.”